The following is an excerpt from the Worship Sourcebook regarding Corporate Worship's meaning and purpose. This book was written and published by The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship; Faith Alive Christian Resources; and Baker Books.

Each week Christians gather for worship in mud huts and Gothic cathedrals, in prisons and nursing homes, in storefront buildings and village squares, in sprawling megachurches and old country chapels. In these diverse  contexts the style of worship caries greatly. Some congregations hear formal sermons read from carefully honed manuscripts; others hear extemporaneous outpourings of emotional fervor. Some sing music accompanied by rock bands, some by pipe organs, some by drum ensembles, some by rusty old pianos, and some by no accompaniment at all. Some dress in their formal Sunday best, others in casual beach clothes.

Yet for all the diversity of cultural expressions and worship styles, there remain several constant norms for Christian worship that transcend cultures and keep us faithful to the gospel of Christ. Especially in an age that constantly focuses on worship still, it is crucial for all leaders to rehearse these transcultural, common criteria for Christian worship and to actively seek to practice them faithfully. Without attention to these basic norms, the best texts, best music, and best forms for worship can easily become distorted and detract from the gospel of Christ that is the basis for Christian life and hope. Though volumes can be written to probe these transcultural norms, even a brief life is helpful for setting the stage for everything that follows in this book.

1. Christian worship should be biblical. The Bible is the source of our knowledge of God and of the world's redemption in Christ. Worship should include prominent readings of Scripture. It should present and depict God's being, character, and actions in ways that are consistent with scriptural teaching. It should obey explicit biblical commands about worship practices, and it should heed scriptural warnings about false and improper worship. Worship should focus its primary attention where the Bible does: on the person and work of Jesus Christ as the Redeemer of all creation and the founder and harbinger of the kingdom of God through the work of the Holy Spirit.
2. Christian worship should be dialogue and relational. In worship, God speaks and God listens. By the power of the Holy Spirit, God challenges us, comforts us, and awakens us. And by the prompting of the Holy Spirit we listen and then respond with praise, confession, petition, testimony, and dedication. Scripture constantly depicts God as initiating and participating in ongoing relationships with people. A healthy life with God maintains a balance of attentive listening and honest speech. So does healthy worship. This is why our words matter in worship: they are used by God to speak to us, and they carry our praise and prayer to God.
3. Christian worship should be covenantal. In worship, God's gracious and new covenant with us in Christ is renewed, affirmed, and sealed. The relationship that God welcomes us into is not a contractual relationship of obligations but a promise-based or covenantal relationship of self-giving love. It is more like a marriage than a legal contact. Worship rehearses God's promises to us and allows for us to recommit ourselves to this covenantal relationship. One question to ask of any worship service is whether it has enabled us to speak to God as faithful and committed covenant partners.
4. Christian worship should be trinitarian. In worship we address the triune God-Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - one God in three persons, the God of holiness, love, beauty, and power. God is the one who graciously invites our worship and then hears our response. God is the one who perfects and mediates our praise and petitions. God is also the one who helps us comprehend what we hear and prompts us to respond. In worship, then, we are drawn into relationship with God (the Father) through God (the Son) and by God (the Holy Spirit). Worship is an arena in which the triune God is active in drawing us closer, using tangible, physical things like water, bread, and wine; melodies, rhythms, and harmonies; gestures, smiles, and handshakes to nurture and challenge us. In worship we focus out attention on this self-giving God. This God-centered focus also keeps us from the temptation to worship worship itself.
5. Christian worship should be communal. The gospel of Christ draws us into communal life with other people. Worship is one setting in which we see the church in action and we attempt to demonstrate and deepen the unity, holiness, and witness of the church. Worship is a first-person-plural activity. It is extremely significant in worship that otherwise remarkably different people nevertheless offer praise together, pray together, listen together, and make promises together.
6. Christian worship should be hospitable, caring, and welcoming. Christian worship must never be self-centered. In worship we pray for the world and offer hospitality to all who live in fear, despair, and loneliness. Public worship sends us out for worshipful lives of service and witness. Worship not only comforts us with the promises of the gospel but also disturbs us (in the best sense) as we realize the significance of fear and broken in our world and the world's desperate need for a Savior. Worship stokes the gratitude of our hearts that leads naturally to serving the needs of our broken world.
7. Christian worship should be "in but not of" the world. Christian worship always reflects the culture out of which it is offered. Patterns of speech, styles or dress, senses of time, rhythms and harmonies of music, and styles of visual symbols vary widely depending on cultural contexts. At the same time, worship must not be enslaved to culture. it must remain prophetic, challenging any dimension of local culture that is at odds with the gospel of Christ.
8. Christian worship should be a generous and excellent outpouring of ourselves before God. Worship should not be stingy. Like the perfume that anointed Jesus' feet, our worship should be a lavish outpouring of our love and praise to the God who has created and redeemed us. Worship calls for our best offerings. When we practice music, prepare words to speak, set aside gifts of money and time to offer, and ensure that we are rested and ready to give our undivided attention, we are practicing the kind of excellence worthy of our great and gracious God.
9. Christian worship should be both expressive and formative. It should honestly express what a community already feels and has experienced - imitating the biblical psalms in their vividly honest expressions of praise and lament, thanksgiving and penitence. Yet worship should also stretch us to take to our lips words that we would not come up with on our own that- like the Lord's prayer - will shape new and deeper dimensions of faith and life with God. In this way, words become a tool of Spirit-led discipleship, forming us to be more faithful followers of and witnesses to Jesus Christ.

These norms, which are more illustrative than exhaustive, point to enduring lessons of Christian wisdom drawn from two thousand years of practice and reflection. And because they are so important, these basic norms must not simply reside in introductions to books of resources. They must function habitually in the working imaginations of worship leaders each week. Each week people who are responsible for worship have the joyful tasks of imagining how worship can be truly biblical, dialogue, covenantal, trinitarian, hospitable, and excellent.

Also important is that these norms come together. Christians need worship that is simultaneously trinitarian and hospitable, covenantal and "in but not of the world." All too often we make choices that, for example, either deepen our theological vision at the expense of hospitality or weaken our theological vision int he name of hospitality...Page 17-18 (The Practice of Christian Worship) of the Worship Sourcebook

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Malachi 1.6-14 (Worship) SPOTTED OFFERINGS AND MISDIRECTED HEDONISM (6-8)

Our actions are often the result of our affections. We do what our hearts want. Malachi is an immensely practical book as it illustrates what it looks like to be a people with misguided affections resulting in sinful actions. In Malachi 1.6-14 we see a people made for God’s glory worshiping creation instead of the Creator. As we encounter a people more enamored with their gifts than the Giver we are confronted with our own sinful tendency to treasure trinkets more than Christ. In the first verse of this passage we hear the rebuke, through God’s questions, that He is not being honored as the Father or feared as the Master. His name is despised by polluted offerings. The picture of the priests bringing spotted sacrifices is illustrative of half-hearted worship flowing forth from half-hearted worshipers.

Giving God What You Won’t Miss, Giving God What You Don’t Want (6-7)

Hopefully, we would readily confess that we give God less than He deserves. However, identifying the specific areas where we need the most growth can be difficult. The following questions focus on the clock and on cash as a framework for discerning where you are giving God what you won’t miss and what you don’t want.

• What does your average weekly schedule look like? Write out what it has been, not what you want it to be. Does this schedule reflect someone who is living for God’s glory? Would others look at the way you spend your time and say you love Jesus more than television, for example? Now, make an ideal schedule that reflects an understanding that your time is God’s time and that you want to worship Him with the clock.
• Cash can’t lie and where your treasure is there your heart is. Evaluating how you spend money is a practical way of seeing what’s important to you. If you don’t have a budget (or a budget that’s accurate) make one. Who or what is worshipped by this budget? If someone saw your budget would they know you love Jesus? Is there something that needs to change with the way you spend money?
• It is right to see the gifts you have as good things. It is right to treasure gifts that God has given (such as a spouse, children, your health, etc.) What is not right is turning these good things into gods. How do you treasure Christ with your treasures? Are you holding too tightly to anything other than Jesus? What, other than Jesus, if you lost right now would destroy you?

Why We Bring Leftovers (8)

One of the questions raised in verse 8 is why we think we can get away with such weak worship. We would rarely insult an earthly leader with the level of disrespect and disinterest we so often give God. In truth, we often give much more honor and interest to our celebrities, our employers, our friends and our stuff than we do the LORD Of Hosts, the Great King. Our misplaced worship often flows from devaluing God and overvaluing stuff. In other words, we have very dim views of God and very inflated views of everything else.

• Read Genesis 1; Psalm 29, Psalm 145; Isaiah 6.1-7, Isaiah 46; Colossians 1.15-20; and Revelation 4-5. What do these passage do to your understanding of who God is? What needs to change about your view of God from these passages?
• Read Psalm 27, Psalm 73 and Psalm 84. Is this how you feel about God? In what ways does your life reflect the love for God that is found in these Psalms?

GOD WILL BE GREAT (9-11)

Two times in verse 11 we read the phrase; “my name will be great among the nations.” God is passionate for His glory. He is a great God and will be praised as a great God. Spotted offerings and weak worship are offensive and intolerable to Him. The following questions are hard but if received as God’s discipline, producing godly grief, they will bring a godly life.

God Hates Half-Hearted Worship

Read through the following passages; Matt 15.7-9; Rev 3.15-22, Isa 1.12-15.

• How does God feel about half-hearted worship?
• Read Malachi 1.10-11. How do you feel about half-hearted worship? When was the last time you were angry because God was not being glorified?

WEAK WORSHIP (12-14)

Weak worship is a disease that brings death and decay to our lives and our churches. All around us we can see the rotting effects of “nominal Christianity.” Half-hearted Christians are often hell bound people (see Revelation 3.14-22) who confuse our culture about Christianity, live unproductive selfish lives, and teach others to do the same.

Your Weak Worship Is Unacceptable, And Yet Teach It’s Fine (12-13)

• Can you think of specific examples of how churches teach that nominal Christianity is acceptable?
• What does lukewarm Christianity look like? In what ways is your life teaching others that a lukewarm life is fine?

Your Weak Worship Has Hardened Your Heart, And You Don’t Even Care (13)

As God rebukes His people for bringing weak worship we see a sad and too common response, that of scoffing. In verse 13 we actually see people snorting at God and claiming that His discipline is wearisome. Weak worship hardens our hearts from caring that we have offended God and from hearing his word to us.

• Do you love discipline or do you hate reproof? (see Proverbs 12.1)
• How do you see the hardening of hearts in the church today? Where do you see this verse played out in your own life?

Your Weak Worship Has Cursed You, What Will You Do? (14)

• What does your weak worship deserve?
• What have you done to be cursed?

"GOSPELED" WORSHIP

Malachi 1 ends with a promise based upon an eternal truth; God is a great King (truth), and His name will be feared among the nations (promise). In light of these realities we must respond. It is foolish and deadly to read the rebukes issued in this chapter and walk away unchanged, unchallenged, and unrepentant. God is a great King and His name will be feared, but is He your King and do you fear Him?

Repent Of Your Half-Hearted Worship (You Need The Gospel: The Perfect Worshiper)

The curse claimed in Malachi 1.14 is rightfully earned by everyone for their half-hearted worship. Many times over we have all vowed to God what we have kept for ourselves. Our hope comes not first and foremost by becoming perfect worshippers but by repenting of our cruse-deserving, God-offending, half-hearted, weak worship and turning to the perfect worshiper, the spotless offering, Jesus Christ.

• How is Jesus’ life credited to us?
• Why do we need Jesus to be the perfect worshiper for us?
• How does the Gospel allow us to hear the rebuke of this passage, repent and be transformed, while not experiencing condemnation or worldly grief?

Confess Your Need For A Curse Bearer (You Need The Gospel: The Spotless Offering)

Malachi 1 leaves all who read it with the knowledge they should be cursed for their careless worship. As you repent of half-hearted worship it is important to also confess the need for a Curse-Bearer to stand in your place for unfaithful and dishonoring worship to God.

• How does Jesus bear the curse that you deserve for worshipping other gods?
• What does it mean to believe that Jesus is the Spotless Offering, the Perfect Worship? Why is this good news for Christians that are loved by God as they are in Christ? (See Hebrews 9-10)

Loved Much. Love Much. (Affections)

John Owen says this; “So much as we see of the love of God, so much shall we delight in Him, and no more.” Malachi 1.6-14 points out clearly that our affections for God are too small and our appetites too easily satisfied by lesser pleasures. One of the best antidotes for lukewarm affections for God is to meditate upon the Gospel of Christ. It is impossible to see what Jesus has done in your place without being moved with love for Him. Use the following questions to help you see God’s love and learn to delight in Him and in no more.

• What did Jesus do to forgive your sins? What sins did Jesus pay for?
• What did it cost God to bear your curse for half-hearted worship?

Speaking And Showing, Satisfied And Singing (Actions From Affections)

As we see the Gospel and taste its goodness our appetites are changed and we long to fast from this world so we can feast on God. Our passions shift, our priorities are reordered, and we become a people who long to bring God more than leftovers. Below you will find the lyrics from the hymn; Take My Life And Let It Be. As you read through this hymn, answering questions as you go, ask God to make it both your request and your confession. As a request the song becomes a petition that God take your life, even when you don’t want to give it; as a confession, the song becomes a statement that your life is His and His alone.

Take My Life And Let It Be (word by Frances Havergal)

Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee. Take my moments and my days; let them flow in ceaseless praise. Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love. Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee.

• What would change in your life right now if every morning you asked God to take ever moment of the coming day and use it to praise Him?
• What are specific ways that God is using, or wants to use, your hand and your feet to bring Him glory in your city?

Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King. Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from Thee. Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold. Take my intellect and use, every power as You choose.

• Is God’s Word in your mind and heart so when your voice sings and your lips speak they are filled with messages from Him?
• What mites are you holding that God wants you to give? Are you generous in light of the Cross or do you give the minimum you can to not feel guilty?
• Are all your gifts, every power, used for His glory or your fame?

Take my will, and make it Thine; it shall be no longer mine. Take my heart, it is Thine own; it shall be Thy royal throne. Take my love, my Lord, I pour at Thy feet its treasure store. Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for Thee.

• What does it look like practically in your life to have your will be God’s will?
• Is your heart God’s throne? Is He your passion? Is Jesus your ultimate love?
• How does the Gospel produce this song without producing condemnation?

Malachi 1.1-5, LOVED

THE ORACLE OF THE WORD OF THE LORD: Malachi, among many things, is a book of rebuke and correction. There is much grace offered, but additionally, that grace is meant to produce repentance. As you prepare to study through this book it is important to understand the different ways you can respond to the Malachi’s message. After you read through the different approaches decide which response you are going to pray God grants you.

Ignore: Some may choose to ignore the message of Malachi. This can happen through dismissing too quickly God’s Word in this Book. Ignoring can also happen by drowning out its message by cluttering up your life with busyness or by medicating the message away through distraction.

• Do you believe you need the message of Malachi?
• Is your life too busy to sit and listen to this text? In what ways might you try to medicate and distract yourself from Malachi?

Worldly Grief: Read 2 Corinthians 7.8-11

• What is the result of worldly grief?
• How is worldly grief the product of a religious attitude?
• How does worldly grief produce confession without repentance?

Godly Grief: Read 2 Corinthians 7.8-11

• What are the results of godly grief?
• How does godly grief reflect a “gospeled” life?

WHO THE WORD IS TO: Like every book in the Bible, Malachi is written to a specific people in a specific time. Familiarity with the cultural setting of the book is helpful in understanding the message for us today. Many of the issues Malachi was addressing in his time are the same problems that plague the church today. Following is a brief list of the different “types” of people addressed in Malachi. As you look at each of these approaches to faith ask yourself where you see evidences of each of these “worldviews” in your life.

Practical Atheism (Live As If God Doesn’t Exist, Material And Temporary)

• How often do you consciously think about God throughout your day?
• How much of your day is spent focused on material and temporary things?

Functional Deism (Live As If God Doesn’t Care, Distant And Indifferent)

• What does your prayer life look like? Does it feel like anyone is listening?
• How often to do you talk with God about decisions and direction in your life?

Cynical Agnosticism (No Judgment, No Resurrection, No Relationship)

• How often do you think about the return of Jesus?
• How often do you think about eternity and heaven?

Religious Formalism (Spotted Leftovers, Minimum Offerings, And Rule Driven Routines. Obedience To Be Accepted)

• Is your faith more rule-oriented or relational?
• When you fail in your obedience do you believe God is going to leave you?
• Do you find yourself doing the very minimum you can so God “isn’t angry with you?”

Stoic Spirituality (Passionless Worship, Lukewarm Affections, And A Joyless Relationship)

• What is your passion?
• What do you spend most of your time talking about, thinking about, excited about?

Misdirected Hedonism (Immediate, Finite, Comfort Seeking And Control)

• In what ways do you pursue temporary pleasure in place of eternal satisfaction?
• What do you delight in?

GOD’S CONTRACONDITIONAL LOVE David Powlison asserts, “the Gospel is better than unconditional love. The Gospel says, “God accepts you just as Christ is. God has ‘contraconditional’ love for you.” Christ bears the curse you deserve. Christ is fully pleasing to the Father and gives you His own perfect goodness. Christ reigns in power, making you the Father’s child and coming close to you to begin to change what is unacceptable to God about you. God never accepts me “as I am.” He accepts me “as I am in Jesus Christ.” The center of gravity is different. The true Gospel does not allow God’s love to be sucked into the vortex of the soul’s LUST for acceptability and worth in and of itself. Rather, it radically decenters people—to look outside themselves.” The following questions attempt to unpack Powlison’s insights as applied to Malachi 1.2-5.

God Has Loved You

• In what way is God’s love the ground of the entire book of Malachi?
• Why are God’s words both unexpected and undeserved?
• Why did God love (choose) Jacob and hate (reject) Esau? (See Romans 9)
• How can a holy God love sinful people?
• Why is God’s contraconditional love such good news for sinners? How does God’s love for us “as we are in Christ Jesus” both comfort us and compel us to respond?

Responding To God’s Love The rebukes throughout the book of Malachi are particularly strong in light of the initiatory, electing, contraconditional love of God for His people. This kind of love demands a response. God’s love will produce a response. Read the entire book of Malachi in one sitting asking these two questions:

• How has God loved His people?
• Have God’s people loved Him?

"The definition of sin is when you replace God with something or someone, and the result is an addiction of spirit. There is an attraction at the spiritual level every bit as powerful as sexual attraction at the physical level: You cannot produce your own meaning in life, your own worth, your own security. Spiritually speaking, if it’s not God who is the source of your meaning, then you’re in bed with something else." Tim Keller follows his sermon, "Sin As Slavery," with a look at how sin replaces God and results in an addiction of spirit.  Keller looks primarily at three major areas; the dynamics of spiritual attraction, the dynamics of spiritual addiction, and the dynamics of spiritual restoration. We learn in this message how to escape our “lover gods” by personalizing our understanding of sin, remembering grace, and looking at how Jesus transforms us into something beautiful.

“How Sin Makes Us Addicts”

"Why do we sin, even when we know right from wrong? Sin is a power that enslaves us, but we can be freed from its power by encountering God through worship." Tim Keller's sermon on Numbers 11:4-6,10-20 is a powerful message that speaks to the soul shriveling effects of sin while pointing us to the hope that comes from our only Savior Jesus Christ. Keller demonstrates how sin shrinks our emotions, overwhelms our thinking, and dries up our strength. He also draws a powerful connection between the similarities between sin and addiction. Keller powerfully concludes the sermon by showing how God gets us out of sin's slavery through intervention an ultimately through the Incarnation of Jesus.

Listen to the sermon for free here:

"Sin As Slavery"